call it write that Males only are by right of inheritance capable of the Government of the French they do hold and maintain this argument tooth and nail with all the unkindness and spite as may be to the English Law which admits of Women to the Throne They urge that not only the Laws of Pharamond but Nature her self is on their side The Government of women 't is Bodin of Anjou sayes it is contrary to the Laws of Nature which hath bestowed upon men discretion strength of body courage and greatness of Spirit with the power of Rule and hath taken these things from women But sweet Mr. Bodin are not discretion strength courage and the arts of Government more to be desired and required in those who have the Tuition of Kings in their Minority than in the Kings themselves till they are come to age Truly I am of that mind For why then pray tell me did not that reason of yours wring the Guardianship of St. Louis out of the hands of the Queen-Mother Blanch why not out of Isabella's hands under Charles the Sixth why not of Catharine de Medicis whilst the two Brothers Francis and Charles her Pupils were incircled with the Crown why not out of the hands of Mary Louis the Thirteenth being at this very time King Were the Jews that I may go back to stories more ancient blind that they could not see the defects of Womens nature in the Government of Debora who triumphed over Sisera and is sufficiently commended in Holy Writ Were the Italians blind under the Government of the most prudent Amalasincta the Halicarnassians under that of the most gallant Artemisia the Egyptians among whom heretofore their Women managed Law-Courts and business abroad and the men lookt to home and minded huswifery and the Aethiopians under their Nicaula whom being very desirous of wisdom King Solomon the wisest man that has been ever since the world was honourably entertain'd were the Assyrians under the Government of their magnificent Semiramis the Massagetes under that of the revengeful Dame Thomyris the Palmyreâ—es under that of the most chaste Zenobia and that I may make an end once under that of other excellent women all Nations whatever none excepted but the Franks who as Goropius will have it came to throw off and slight female Government upon this account that in Vespaesian's time they had seen the affairs of their neighbours the Bructeri in East Friseland whilst that scornful Hag Velleda ruled the roast came to no good issue I do very well know that our perjured Barons when they resolved to exclude Queen Mawd from the English Throne made this shameful pretence That it would be a shame for so many Nobles to be subject to a woman And yet you shall not read that the Iceni our Essexmen c. got any shame by that Boadicia whom Gildas terms a Lioness or that the Brigantes i. e. York-shire-men c. got any by Chartismandua You will read that they got glory and renown by them both Reader thou canst not here chuse but think of our late Soveraign of Ever Blessed Memory the Darling of Britan Q. ELIZABETH nor canst thou whosoever thou art but acknowledge That there was not wanting to a Woman what Malmesbury writes of Sexburga the Queen Dowager of Cenwalch King of the West Saxons a great Spirit to discharge the duties of the Kingdom she levied new Armies kept the old ones to duty she governed her Subjects with Clemency kept her Enemies quiet with threats and in a word did every thing at that rate that there was no other difference betwixt her and any King in management but her Sex Of whose I mean Elizabeths superlative and truly Royal Vertues a rare Poet and otherwise a very Learned man hath sung excellently well Si quasdam tacuisse velim quamcunque tacebo Major erit primos actus veteresque labores Prosâ—quar ad sese revocant praesentia mentem Justitiam dicam magis at Clementia splendet Victrices referam vires plus vicit inermis 'T is pity these are not well rendred into English However take them as they are in blank Verse Should I in silence some her Uertues pass Which e're I so pass o're will greater be Shall I her first deeds and old facts pursue Present affairs to them call back my mind Shall I her Justice in due numbers sing But then her Clemency far brighter shines Or shall I her victorious Arms relate In peace unarm'd she hath got more to th' State What did the Germans our Ancestors they thought there was in that Sex something of Sanctity and foresight nor did they slight their counsels nor neglect the answers they gave when questions were put to them about matters of business and as Superstition increased held most of them for Goddesses Let him then whatever dirty fellow it was be condemned to the Crows and be hang'd to him who is not ashamed out of ancient Scrolls to publish to the world that they Women agree with Soldiers Bully-Rocks and Hectors mainly in this That they are continually very much taken up with looking after their body and are given to lust that Souldiers themselves are not nor endeavour to be more quick and sudden in their Cheats and Over-reachings that Soldiers deceive people at some distances of time but women lye alwayes at catch chouse and pillage their Gallants all the wayes they can bring them into Consumptions with unreasonable sittings up And other such like mad rude expressions he useth not unfitting for a Professor in Bedlam Colledge Plato allowed Women to govern nor did Aristotle whatever the Interpreters of his Politicks foolishly say take from them that priviledge Vertue shuts no door against any body any Sex but freely admits all And Hermes Trismegistus that Thrice great man in his Poemander according to his knowledge of Heavenly concerns and that sure was great in comparison of what the Owl-ey'd Philosophers had he ascribes the mystical name of Male-Female to the great Understanding to wit God the Governour of the Universe They the good women I have been speaking of from their Cradle at this rate men commonly talk of them do too much love to have the Reins of Government and to be uppermost Well! be it so that they do love to govern and who is it doth not love them Now a sin and shame be it for Lovers to grudge to their beloved that which is most desired and wished by them nor could I forbear out of conscience with my suffrage to assist as far as I could that Sex which is so great and comfortable an importance to mankind so sweet a refreshment amidst our sharpest toils and the vicissitudes of life and in a word is the dearest gift that Dame Nature could bestow upon Man But let us now return to Caesar's Gauls again CHAP. XIII Their putting themselves under protection by going into great mens service Their Coins of money and their weighing of it Some
been no people in Europe before the destruction of Troy and as if there had been no one among the Trojans themselves of ignoble birth He who made the Alphabetical Index to Jeoffry of Monmouth who was Bishop of St. Asaph too as he is printed and put forth by Ascensius propt up the Authors credit upon this account that as he sayes he makes no mention any where in his Book of the Franks by reason forsooth that all those things almost which he has written of were done and past before the Franks arrival in France This was a slip surely more than of memory Go to Jeoffry himself and in his Nineteenth Chapter of his first Book you meet with the Franks in the time of Brennus and Belinus among the Senones a people of France a gross misreckoning of I know not how many hundred years For the Franks are not known to have taken up their quarters on this side the River Rhine till some Centuries of years after Christs Incarnation For howbeit by Poetick license and Rhetorical figure Aeneas be said to have come to the Lavinian Shores which had not that name till some time after yet it were much better that both in Verse and Prose those things which appertain to History should be expressed according to that form of Ovid where at the burning of Rhemus his Funeral Pile he sayes Tunc Juvenes nondum facti flevere Quirites that is The young men then not yet Quirites made Wept as the body on the Pile they laid And at this rate Jeoffry might and ought to have made his Translation if he would have been a faithful Interpreter But as to our Brutus whence the Britans Saxo whence the Saxons Bruno whence those of Brunswick Freso whence those of Friseland and Bato whence the Batavians had their rise and name take notice what Pontus Heuterus observes as others have done before him Songs or Ballads sayes he and Rhymes made in an unlearned Age with ease obtruded falshoods for truths upon simple people or mingling falsehoods with truths imposed upon them for three or four hundred years ago there was nothing that our Ancestors heard with greater glee than that they were descended from the adulterous Trojans from Alexander of Macedonia the Overthrower of Kingdoms from that Manqueller Hercules of Greece or from some other disturber of the World And indeed that is too true which he sayes Mensuraque fictis Crescit auditis aliquid novus adjicit auctor which in plain English speaks this sence Thus Stories nothing in the telling lose The next Relater adding still to th' News But I will not inlarge To clear these points aright Antiquaries who are at see-saw about them will perhaps eternally be at loss like the Hebrews in their mysterious debates for want of some Elias to come and resolve their doubts CHAP. VII What the Trojan Laws were which Brutus brought in That concerning the Eldest Sons Inheriting the whole Estate confuted In the first times there were no Positive Laws yet mention made of them in some very ancient Authors notwithstanding a remark of some ancient Writers to the contrary WEll Suppose we grant there was such a Person ever in the World as Brutus He made Laws they say and those taken out of the Trojan Laws but what I pray were those Trojan Laws themselves There is one I know well enough they speak of concerning the Prerogative of the eldest Sons by which they inherited the whole Right and Estate of their deceased Father Herodotus writes it of Hector Son and Heir to King Priam and Jeoffry mentions it but did this Law cross the Sea with Brutus into Brittany How then came it that the Kingdom was divided betwixt the three Brothers Locrinus Camber and Albanactus betwixt the two Ferrix and Porrix betwixt Brennus and Belinus and the like of some others How came it that in a Parliament of Henry the Eighth provision was made that the Free-holds of Wales should not thence-forward pass according to that custom which they call Gavelkind And anciently if I be not mistaken most Inheritances were parted among the Children as we find in Hesiods works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. We had already parted the Estate And to the same purpose many like passages there are in old Poets and in Holy Writ But as I said what are those Trojan Laws Perhaps the same with those by which Nephelococcygia the City of the Birds in Aristophanes or as we use to say Vtopia is Governed The gravest Writers do acknowledge that those most ancient times were for the most part free from positive Laws The people so says Justin wee held by no Laws The Pleasures and Resolves of their Princes past for Laws or were instead of Laws Natural Equity like the Lesbian Rule in Aristotle being adapted applied and fitted to the variety of emergent quarrels as strifes ordered over-ruled and decided all Controversies And indeed at the beginning of the Roman State as Pomponius writes the people resolved to live without any certain Law or Right and all things were governed by the hand and power of the King For they were but at a little distance from the Golden Age when vindice nullo Sponte suâ sine lege fidem rectumque colebant That is to say when People did not grudge To be plain honest without Law or Judge That which the Heresie of the Chiliasts heretofore affirmed concerning the Sabbatick or seventh Millenary or thousand years of the World And those Shepherds or Governors of the people to whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Into whose hand Jove trusts his Laws and Scepter for Command did Govern them by the guidance of vertue and of those Laws which the Platonicks call the Laws of second Venus Not out of the ambition of Rule as St. Austin hath it but out of duty of Counsel nor out of a domineering pride but out of a provident tenderness Do you think the Trojans had any other Laws Only except the worship of their Gods and those things which belong to Religion It was duty says Seneca not dignity to Reign and Govern And an Eye and a Scepter among the Aegyptians were the absolute Hieroglyphicks of Kings What that there is not so much as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Law to be met with in those old Poets Orpheus Musaeus or Homer who was about an hundred and fifty years after the destruction of Troy as Josephus against Appio Plutarch and several modern Writers have remarked I confess if one well consider it this remark of theirs is not very accurate For we very often read in Homer and Hesiod the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Laws and in both of them the Goddess Eunomia from the same Theme as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being interpreted is But they by legal methods bear the
quantity of Corn or Cattel or Clothes We see here clearly enough the nature of Country Land-holders Fees or Tenures As to military or Knights Fees give me leave to set that down too Dionysius Halicarnasseus gives us a very ancient draught and model of them in the Trojans and Aborigines Florus in the Cymbrians and Lampridius in Alexander Severus Both the Northern people and the Italians do owe them to the Huns and Lombards but these later according to a more modern form Let these things suffice out of Cornelius Tacitus which belong to this Head CHAP. XXII Since the return of Christianity into the Island King Ethelbert's Law against Sacriledge Thieves formerly amerced in Cattel A blot upon Theodred the Good Bishop of London for hanging Thieves The Country called Engelond by Order of King Egbert and why so called The Laws of King Ina Alfred Ethelred c. are still to be met with in Saxon. Those of Edward the Confessor and King Knute the Dane were put forth by Mr. Lambard in his Archaeonomia BEfore that the Christian Doctrine had driven out and banished the Saxon Idolatry all these things I have hitherto been speaking of were in use Ethelbert he that was the first King not only of Kent but of all England except Northumberland having been baptized by Austin the Monk the Apostle as some call him of the English amongst other good things which by Counsel and Grant he did to his Nation 't is venerable Bede speaks these words he did also with the advice of wise men appoint for his peoples use the orders of their proceedings at Law according to the examples of the Romans Which having been written in the English tongue says he are hitherto or to this time kept and observed by them Among which orders or decrees he set down in the first place after what manner such an one should make amends who should convey away by stealth any of those things that belonged to the Church or to a Bishop or to the rest of the Orders In the Laws of some that came after him as those of King Alured who cull'd out of Ethelbert's Acts to make up his own and those of King Athelstan Thieves make satisfaction with mony accordingly as Tacitus says of the Germans That for lighter offences those that were convicted are at the rate of their penalties amerced such a number of Horses or other Cattel For as Festus hath it before Brass and Silver were coyned by ancient custom they were fined for their faults so much Cattel But those who medled with any thing sacred we read had that hand cut off with which they committed the theft Well! but am I mistaken or was Sacriledge even in the time of the Saxon Government punisht as a Capital crime There is a passage of William of Malmsbury in his Book de Gestis Pontificum that inclines me to think so Speaking of Theodred the Bishop of London when Athelstan was King he says That he had among the common people got the sirname of Theodred the Good for the eminence of his virtues Only in one thing he fell short which was rather a mistake than a crime that those Thieves which were taken at St. Edmunds whom the holy Martyr had upon their vain attempts tied with an invisible knot he means St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk which Church these Fellows having a design to rob are said by miracle to have stood still in the place as if they had been tied with Cords These Thieves Isay were by his means or sufferance given up to the severity of the Laws and condemned to the Gallows or Gibbet Let not any one think that in this middle Age this Gallows or Gibbâ—t I spoke of was any other thing than the Roman Furca upon which people hang and are strangled till they die 34. Egbert King of the West-Saxons I make use of Camdens words having gotten in four Kingdoms by conquest and devour'd the other two also in hope that what had come under the Government of one might likewise go under one name and that he might keep up the memory of his own people the Angles he gave order by Proclamation that the Heptarchy which the Saxons had possest should be called Engelond John Carnotensis writes that it was so called from the first coming in of the Angles and another some body says it was so named from Hengist a Saxon Prince There are a great many Laws of King Ina Alfred Edward Athelstan Edmund Edgar Ethelred and Knute the Dane written in the Saxon language which have lasted till these very times For King Knute gave order 't is William of Malmsbury speaks that all the Laws which had been made by former Kings and especially by his Predecessor Ethelred should under pain of his displeasure and a Fine be constantly observed For the keeping of which even now in the time of those who are called the Good people swear in the name of King Edward not that he appointed them but that he observed them The Laws of Edward who for his piety has the sirname of Confessor are in Readers hands These of the Confessor were in Latin those others of Knute were not long since put into Latin by William Lambard a learned man and one very well vers'd in Antiquity who had recovered them both and published the Saxon Original with his Translation over against it Printed by John Day at London Anno 1567. under the Title of Archaeonomia or a Book concerning the ancient Laws of the English May he have a good harvest of it as he deserves From Historians let us borrow some other helps for this service CHAP. XXIII King Alfred divides England into Countyes or Shires and into Hundreds and Tythings The Original of Decenna or Court-leet Friburg and Mainpast Forms of Law how People were to answer for those whom they had in Borgh or Mainpast 35. INgulph the Abbot of Crowland writing of King Alfred says That he was the first of all that changed the Villages or Lordships and Provinces of all England into Counties or Shires Before that it was reckoned and divided according to the number of Hides or Plough-lands by little districts or quarters He divided the Counties into Hundreds and Tythings it was long before that Honorius Arch-Bishop of Canterbury had parted the Country into Parishes to wit Anno 636. that every Native home-born lawful man might be in some Hundred and Tything I mean whosoever was full twelve years of age and if any one should be suspected of Larceny or Theft he might in his own Hundred or Ward being either condemned or giving security in some Manuscripts it is being acquitted he might either incur or avoid the deserved penalty William of Malmsbury adds to this that he that could not find security was afraid of the severity of the Laws and if any guilty person either before his giving security or after should make his escape all of that Hundred and Tything
should incur the Kings fine Here we have the Original of Decenna or a Court-leet of Friburg and perhaps of Mainpast Which things though grown out of use in the present Age yet are very often mentioned not only in the Confessors Laws but also in Bracton and in other Records of our Law What Decenna was the word it self does almost shew And Ingulph makes out that is a Dousin or Courtleet Friburg or Borgh signifies a Surety for Fri is all one as free He who passes his word for anothers good behaviour or good abearing and is become his security is said to have such a one in his Borgh Being ingaged upon this account to the Government to answer for him if he misbehave himself And hence it is that our people in the Country call those that live near them or as I may say at the next door Neighbours When yet those that would find out the reason why the people of Liege in the Low Countries are called Eburones do understand that Burgh which is the same as Borgh to stand for a Neighbour and this is plainly affirmed by Pontus Heuterus in other Originations of the like kind Manupastus is the same thing as a Family As if one would say fed by hand Just in the like sence Julius Pollux in Greek terms a Master of a Family Trophimos that is the feeder of it That the Rights of Friburg and Manupast were in use with the English some five or six Generations ago is manifest Curio a Priest is fined by Edward the third because there had been one of his Family a Murderer And the ancient Sheets concerning the Progress or Survey of Kent under Edward the second do give some light this way Ralph a Milner of Sandon and Roger a Boy of the said Ralph in Borgh of Twicham Critick whoever you are I would not have you to laugh at this home spun Dialect came by night to the Mill of Harghes and then and there murdered William the Milner and carried away his Goods and Chattels and presently fled It is not known whither they are gone and the Jury mistrusts them the said Ralph and Roger concerning the death of the aforesaid William therefore let them be driven out and out-lawed They had no Chattels but the aforesaid Ralph was in Borgh of Simon Godwin of Twâ—cham who at present has him not and therefore lies at mercy And Roger was not in Borgh but was of the Mainpast of Robert Arch-Bishop of Canterbury deceased there being no Engleshire presented the Verdit is the murder upon the Hundred The first discoverer of it and three Neighbours are since dead and Thomas Broks one of the Neighbours comes and is not mistrusted and the Villages of Wimesbugewelle and Egestoun did not come fully to the Coroners Inquest and are therefore at mercy And about the same time Solomon Roâ— of Ickham came to the House of Alice the Daughter of Dennis Wâ—â—nes and beat her and struck her upon the Belly with a staff so that she dyed presently And the foresaid Solomon presently fled and the Jury mistrust him concerning the death aforesaid therefore let him be driven out and be outlawed He had no Chattels nor was he in Borgh because a Vagrant The Verdit the murder lies upon the Hundred c. And according to this form more such Instances But let it suffice to have hinted at these things adding out of Henry Bracton If out of Frank-pledge an Offender be received in any Village the Village shall be at mercy unless he that fled be such an one that he ought not to be in Leet and Frank-pledge as Nobles Knights and their Parents their eldest Sons it is in the yearly Records of Law in Edward the first 's time and we may take in Daughters too a Clergy-man a Freeman I fear this word has crept in and the like according to the custom of the Country and in which case he of whose Family and Mainpast they were shall be bound in some parts and shall answer for them unless the custom of the Country be otherways that he ought not to answer for his Mainpast as it is in the County of Hertford where a man does not answer for his Mainpast for any offence unless he return after Felony or he receive him after the offence committed as in the Circuit of M. de Pateshull in the County of Hertford in such a year of King Henry the fifth In sooth these usages do partly remain in our Tythings and Hundreds not at all hitherto repealed or worn out of fashion CHAP. XXIV King Alfred first appointed Sheriffs By Duns Scotus his advice he gave Order for the breeding up of Youth in Learning By the way what a Hide of Land is King Edgar's Law for Drinking Prelates investiture by the Kings Ring and Staff King Knute's Law against any English-man that should kill a Dane Hence Englescyre The manner of Subscribing and Sealing till Edward the Confessor's time King Harald's Law that no Welch-man should come on this side Offa's Dike with a weapon 36. THe Governors of Provinces who before were styled Deputy-Lieutenants we return to Ingulph and King Alfred He divided into two Offices that is into Judges whom we now call Justices and into Sheriffs who do still retain the same name Away then with Polydore Virgil who fetches the first Sheriffs from the Norman Conqueror 37. John Scot Erigena advised the King that he would have his Subjects instructed in good Letters and that to that end he would by his Edict take care of that which might be for the benefit of Learning Whereupon he gave strict order to all Freemen of the whole Kingdom who did at least possess two Hides of Land that they should hold and keep their Children till the time of fifteen years of their Age to learning and should in the mean time diligently instruct them to know God A Hide of Land that I may note it once for all and a Plough Land that is as much Land as can be well turned up and tilled with one Plough every year are read as synonymous terms of the same sence in Huntingdon Matthew Paris Thomas Walsingham and expresly in a very old Charter of Dunstan Although some take a Hide for an hundred Acres and others otherwise do thou if thou hadst rather so do fansie it to be as much ground as one can compass about with a Bull-hide cut into Thongs as Queen Dido did at Carthage There are some who are not unwilling to have it so understood 38. King Edgar like a King of good Fellows or Master of Revels made a Law for Drinking He gave order that studs or knobs of Silver or Gold so Malmsbury tells us should be fastned to the sides of their Cups or drinking Vessels that when every one knew his mark or boundary he should out of modesty not either himself covet or force another to desire more than his stint This is the only Law
before the first Parliament under King James has been made against those Swill-bowls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Swabbers of drunken Feasts and lusty Rowers In full brimm'd Rummers that do ply their Dars who by their carowses tipling up Nestor's years as if they were celebrating the Goddess Anna Perenna do at the same time drink others Healths and mischief and spoil their own and the Publick 39. There was no choice of Prelates these are the words of Ingulph again that was merely free and canonical but the Court conferred all Dignities as well of Bishops as of Abbots by the Kings Ring and Staff according to his good pleasure The Election or choice was in the Clergy and the Monks but they desired him whom they had chosen of the King Edmund in King Ethelred's time was after this manner made Bishop of the Holy Island on the Coast of Northumberland And King Edgar in his Patent which he signed to the Abby of Glastenbury retained to himself and his Heirs the power of bestowing the Pastoral Staff to the Brother Elect. 40. To as many as King Knute retained with him in England to wit to the Danes for by their hands also was the Scepter of this Kingdom managed it was granted that they should have a firm peace all over so that if any of the English killed any of those men whom the King had brought along with him if he could not clear himself by the Judgment of God that is by Ordeal to wit by water and burning hot iron Justice should be done upon him But if he run away and could not be taken there should be paid for him sixty six marks and they were gathered in the Village where the Party was slain and therefore because they had not the murderer forth coming and if in such Village by reason of their poverty they could not be gathered then they should be gathered in the Hundred to be paid into the Kings Treasure In this manner writes Henry Bracton who observes that hence the business of Englishshire came into fashion in the Inquests of murder 41. Hand-Writings i.e. Patents and Grants till Edward the Confessors time were confirmed by the subscriptions of faithful Persons presâ—nt a thing practised too among the Britans in King Arthur's time as John Price informs us out of a very ancient Book of the Church of Landaff Those subscriptions were accompanied with Golden Crosses and other sacred Seals or like stamps 42. King Harald made a Law that whosoever of the Welch should be found with a Weapon about him without the bound which he had set them to wit Offa's dike he should have his Right Hand cut off by the Kings Officers This dike our Chorographer tells us was cut by Offa King of the Mercians and drawn along from the mouth of the River Dee to the mouth of the River Wye for about eighty miles in length on purpose to keep the English and Welch asunder CHAP. XXV The Royal Consorts great Priviledge of Granting Felons Estates forfeited to the King Estates granted by the King with three Exceptions of Expedition Bridge and Castle The Ceremony of the Kings presenting a Turf at the Altar of that Church to which he gave Land Such a Grant of King Ethelbald comprized in old Verse THe Donations or Grants of the Royal Consort though not by the Kings Authority contrary to what the Priviledge of any other Wife is were ratified also in that Age as they were by the Roman Law Which by the Patent of Aethelswith Wife to Burghred King of the Mercians granted to Cuthwuls in the year 868. hath been long since made out by Sir Edward Coke Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas Where also King Ethelred's ancient Charter proves that the Estates of Felons those I mean who concern themselves in Burglaries and Robberies are forfeited to the King Having already mentioned those Hand-writings or Grants which are from one hand and t'other conveyances of Tenure the fewel of quarrels I have a mind over and above what has been said to set down also these Remarks as being to our purpose and taken from the Saxons As for instance that those are most frequent whereby Estates are conveyed to be held with the best and fairest right yet most commonly these three things excepted to wit Expedition Repairing of Bridges and Building of Castles And that those to whom the Grants were made were very seldom acquitted upon this account These three exceptions are noted by the term of a three-knotted necessity in an old Charter wherein King Cedwalla granted to Wilfrid the first Bishop of Shelsey in Sussex the Village of Paganham in the said County For though in the Grants of King Ethelulph the Church be free says Ingulph and there be a concession of all things for the release of our Souls and pardon of our sins to serve God alone without Expedition and building of Bridge and fortifying of Castle to the intent that the Clergy might wholly attend Divine Service Yet in that publick debate of Parliament in the Reign of Henry the third concerning the ancient State Freedom and Government of the English Church and concerning the hourly exactions of the Pope and the Leeches Jugglers and Decoys of Rome that strolled up and down the Country to pick Peoples Pockets to the great prejudice of the Common-wealth they did indeed stand for the priviledge of the Church and produced as Witnesses thereof the Instruments and Grants of Kings who nevertheless were not so much inclined to countenance that liberty of the Church but that as Matthew Paris observes They always reserved to themselves for the publick advantage of the Kingdom three things to wit Expedition and the repairing or making up of Bridge or Castle that by them they might withstand the incursions of the Enemy And King Eâ—helbald hath this form I grant that all the Monasteries and Churches of my Kingdom be discharged from publick Customs or Taxes Works or Services and Burdens or Payments or Attendances unless it be the building and repairing of Castles or Bridges which cannot be released to any one I take no notice how King Ethelred the twelfth perhaps but by no means the fifteenth wherein an Historian of ours has blundred hath signed the third year of his Reign by the term of an Olympiad after the manner of the Greek computation or reckoning As likewise I pass other things of the like kind which are many times used and practised according to the fancy of the Clerks or Notaries However the last words which are the close of these Grants and Patents are not to be slighted These we may see in that of Cedwalla King of the South-Saxons made to Theadore Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in the year 687. thus For a further confirmation of my grant I Cedwalla have laid a Turf of the Land aforesaid upon the holy Altar of my Saviour And with my own hand being ignorant
of Letters have set down and expressed the mark or sign of the Holy Cross. Concerning Withred and a Turf of Land in Kent Camden has the same thing And King Ethelulph is said to have offered his Patent or Deed of Gift on the Altar of the holy Apostle St. Peter For a conclusion I know no reason why I may not set underneath the Verses of an old Poet wherein he hath comprised the instrument or Grant of founding an Abby which Ethelbald King of the Mercians gave to Kenulph Abbot of Crowland Verses I say but such as were made without Apollo's consent or knowledge Istum Kenulphum si quis vexaverit Anglus Rex condemno mihi cuncta catella sua Inde meis Monachis de damnis omnibus ultrà Vsque satisfaciat carcere clausus erit Adsunt ante Deum testes hujus dationis Anglorum proceres Pontificesque mei Sanctus Guthlacus Confessor Anachorita Hic jacet in cujus auribus ista loquâ—r Oret pro nobis sanctissimus iste Sacerdos Ad tumbam cujus haec mea donâ— dedi Which in Rhyme dogrel will run much after this hobling rate If any English vex this Kenulph shall I King condemn to me his Chattels all Thenceforth until my Monks he satisfie For damages in Prison he shall lye Witnesses of this Gift here in Gods fight Are English Peers and Prelates of my Right Saint Guthlac Confessor and Anchoret Lies here in whose Ears these words I speak yet May he pray for us that most holy Priest At whose Tomb these my Gifts I have addrest Thus they closed their Donations or Grants thus we our Remarks of the Saxons being now to pass to the Normans THE SECOND BOOK OF THE ENGLISH JANUS From the NORMAN Conquest to the Death of King Henry II. CHAP. I. William the Conquerour's Title He bestows Lands upon his followers and brings Bishops and Abbots under Military Service An account of the old English Laws called Merchenlage Danelage and Westsaxen-lage He is prevailed upon by the Barons to govern according to King Edward's Laws and at S. Albans takes his Oath so to do Yet some new Laws were added to those old ones WILLIAM Duke of Normandy upon pretence of a double Right both that of Blood inasmuch as Emme the Mother of Edward the Confessor was Daughter to Richard the first Duke of the Normans and withal that of Adoption having in Battel worsted Harald the Son of Godwin Earl of Kent obtain'd a large Inheritance and took possession of the Royal Government over all England After his Inauguration he liberally bestowed the Lands and Estates of the English upon his fellow-soldiers that little which remained so saith Matthew Paris he put under the yoke of a perpetual servitude Upon which account some while since the coming in of the Normans there was not in England except the King himself any one who held Land by right of Free-hold as they term it since in sooth one may well call all others to a man only Lords in trust of what they had as those who by swearing fealty and doing homage did perpetually own and acknowledge a Superior Lord of whom they held and by whom they were invested into their Estates All Bishopricks and Abbacies which held Baronies and so far forth had freedom from all Secular service the fore-cited Matthew is my Author he brought them under Military service enrolling every Bishoprick and Abbacy according to his own pleasure how many Souldiers he would have each of them find him and his Successors in time of Hostility or War Having thus according to this model ordered the Agrarian Law for the division and settlement of Lands he resolved to govern his Subjects we have it from Gervase of Tilbury by Laws and Ordinances in writing to which purpose he proposed also the English Laws according to their Tripartite or threefold distinction that is to say Merchenlage Danlage and Westsaxenlage Merchenlage that is the Law of the Mercians which was in force in the Counties of Glocester Worcester Hereford Warwick Oxford Chester Salop and Stafford Danlage that is the Law of the Danes which bore sway in Yorkshire Derby Nottingham Leicester Lincoln Northampton Bedford Buckingham Hertford Essex Middlesex Norfolk Suffolk Cambridge Huntingdon Westsaxenlage that is the Law of the West-Saxons to which all the rest of the thirty two Counties which are all that Malmesbury reckons up in Ethelred's time did belong to wit Kent Sussex Surrey Berks Southampton Winton Somerset Dorset and Devon Some of these English Laws he disliked and laid aside others he approved of and added to them some from beyond Sea out of Neustria he means Normandy which they did of old term Neustria corruptly instead of Westrich as being the more Western Kingdom of the Franks and given by Charles the Simple to Rollo for his Daughter Gilla her portion such of them as seemed most effectual for the preserving of the Kingdoms peace This saith he of Tilbury Now this is no rare thing among Writers for them to devise that William the Conqueror brought in as it were a clear new face of Laws to all intents and purposes 'T is true this must be acknowledg'd that he did make some new ones part whereof you may see in Lambard's Archaeonomia and part of them here subjoyned but so however that they take their denomination from the English rather than from the Normans although one may truly say according to what Lawyers dispute that the English Empire and Government was overthrown by him That he did more especially affect the Laws of the Danes which were not much unlike to those of the Norwegians to whom William was by his Grand-father allied in blood I read in the Annals of Roger Hoveden And that he openly declared that he would rule by them at hearing of which all the great men of the Countrey who had enacted the English Laws were presently struck into dumps and did unanimously petition him That he would permit them to have their own Laws and ancient Customs in which their Fathers had lived and they themselves had been born and bred up in forasmuch as it would be very hard for them to take up Laws that they knew not and to give judgement according to them But the King appearing unwilling and uneasie to be moved they at length prosecuted their purpose beseeching him that for the Soul of King Edward who had after his death given up the Crown and Kingdom to him and whose the Laws were and not any others that were strangers he would hearken to them and grant that they might continue under their own Countrey Laws Whereupon calling a Council he did at the last yield to the request of the Barons From that day forward therefore the Laws of King Edward which had before been made and appointed by his Grand-father Adgar seeing their authority were before the rest of the Laws of the Countrey respected confirmed and observed all over England But what then Doth it follow that
all things in William's time were new How can a man chuse but believe it The Abbot of Crowland sayes this of it I have brought with me from London into my Monastery the Laws of the most Righteous King Edward which my Renowned Lord King William hath by Proclamation ordered under most grievous penalties to be authentick and perpetual to be kept inviolably throughout the whole Kingdom of England and hath recommended them to his Justices in the same language wherein they were at first set forth and published And in the Life of Fretherick Abbot of S. Albans you have this account After many debates Arch-Bishop Lanfrank being then present at Berkhamstead in Hartfordshire the King did for the good of peace take his Oath upon all the Reliques of the Church of S. Alban and by touching the holy Gospels Fretherick the Abbot administring the Oath that he would inviolably observe the good and approved ancient Laws of the Kingdom which the holy and pious Kings of England his Predecessors and especially King Edward had appointed But you will much more wonder at that passage of William le Rouille of Alençon in his Preface to the Norman Customs That vulgar Chronicle saith he which is intitled the Chronicle of Chronicles bears witness that S. Edward King of England was the Maker or Founder of this Custom where he speaks of William the Bastard Duke of Normandy alias King of England saying that whereas the foresaid S. Edward had no Heirs of his own Body he made William Heir of the Kingdom who after the Defeat and Death of Harald the Usurper of the Kingdom did freely obtain and enjoy the Kingdom upon this condition to wit that he would keep the Laws which had before been made by the fore-mentioned Edward which Edward truly had also given Laws to the Normans as having been a long time also brought up himself in Normandy Where then I pray you is the making of new Laws Why without doubt according to Tilbury we are to think that together with the ratifying of old Laws there was mingled the making of some new ones and in this case one may say truly with the Poet in his Panegyrick Firmatur senium Juris priscamque resumunt Canitiem leges emendanturque vetustae Acceduntque novae which in English speaks to this sense The Laws old age stands firm by Royal care Statutes resume their ancient gray hair Old ones are mended with a fresh repair And for supply some new ones added are See here we impart unto thee Reader these new Laws with other things which thou maist justly look for at my hands in this place CHAP. II. The whole Country inrolled in Dooms-day Book Why that Book so called Robert of Glocester's Verses to prove it The Original of Charters and Seals from the Normans practised of old among the French Who among the Romans had the priviledge of using Rings to seal with and who not 1. HE caused all England to be described and inrolled a whole company of Monks are of equal authority in this business but we make use of Florentius of Worcester for our witness at this time how much Land every one of his Barons was possessed of how many Soldiers in fee how many Ploughs how many Villains how many living Creatures or Cattel I and how much ready mony every one was Master of throughout all his Kingdom from the greatest to the least and how much Revenue or Rent every Possession or Estate was able to yield That breviary or Present State of the Kingdom being lodged in the Archives for the generality of it containing intirely all the Tenements or Tenures of the whole Country or Land was called Dooms-day as if one would say The day of Doom or Judgment For this reason saith he of Tilbury we call the same Dooms-day Book Not that there is in it sentence given concerning any doubtful cases proposed but because it is not lawful upon any account to depart from the Doom or Judgment aforesaid Reader If it will not make thy nice Stomach wamble let me bring in here an old fashioned Rhyme which will hardly go down with our dainty finical Verse-wrights of an historical Poet Robert of Glocester One whom for his Antiquity I must not slight concerning this Book The K. W. vor to wite the worth of his londe Let enqueri streitliche thoru al Engelonde Hou moni plou lond and hou moni hiden also Were in everich sire and wat hii were wurth yereto And the rents of each toun and of the waters echone That wurth and of woods eke that there ne bileved none But that he wist wat hii were wurth of al Engelonde And wite al clene that wurth thereof ich understond And let it write clene inou and that scrit dude iwis In the Tresorie at Westminster there it yut is So that vre Kings suth when hii ransome toke And redy wat folc might give hii fond there in yor boke Considering how the English Language is every day more and more refined this is but a rude piece and looks scurvily enough But yet let us not be unmindful neither that even the fine trim artifices of our quaint Masters of Expression will themselves perhaps one day in future Ages that shall be more critical run the same risk of censure and undergo the like misfortune And that Multa renascentur quae nunc cecidere cadentque Quae nunc sunt in honore As Horace the Poet born at Venusium tells us That is Several words which now are fal'n full low Shall up again to place of Honour start And words that now in great esteem I trow Are held shall shortly with their honour part 2. The Normans called their Writings given under their hand Charters I speak this out of Ingulph and they ordered the confirmation of such Charters with an impression of Wax by every ones particular Seal under the Testimony and Subscription of three or four Witnesses standing by But Edward the Confessor had also his Seal though that too from Normandy For in his time as the same Writer saith Many of the English began to let slip and lay aside the English Fashions bringing in those of the Normans in their stead and in many things to follow the customs of the Franks all great persons to speak the French Tongue in their Courts looking upon it as a great piece of gentility to make their Charters and Writings alamode of France and to be ashamed of their own Country usages in these and other like cases Nay and if Leland an Eye-witness may be believed our great Prince Arthur had his Seal also which he saith he saw in the Church of Westminster with this very inscription PATRITIUS ARTHURIUS BRITANNIAE GALLIAE GERMANIAE DACIAE IMPERATOR That is The Right Noble ARTHUR Emperor of Britanny France Germany and Transylvania But that the Saxons had this from the Normans is a thing out of all question Their Grants or Letters
hand-writings till the time of King Alfred who had by French Tutors been very well trained up in all Literature but from the time of the said King it did by disuse come to be of little account and the French hand because it being more legible and more delightful to sight had the preheminence grew more and more every day in vogue and use among all the English Nevertheless however this business went we are told that in the memory of our Fathers and that by an ancient order there were Lectures of the English-Saxon language read at Tavistock Abby in Devonshire 5. That his new Kingdom might not be disturbed by Riots and disorders in the night he ordered that at the Ringing of a Bell which they called the Curfew-Bell all the Lights and Fires should in every little Cottage a little after the dusk of the Evening be put out 6. He that should take a Deer or aprum a Boar so says Huntingdon but perhaps 't is caprum a Buck or a Roe was to have his eyes thrust or plucked out saith Matthew Paris 7. If any one had slain any one 't is Huntingdon writes this be it upon what cause or occasion soever he was sentenced to a Capital punishment he was to die for it 8. If one had forced any woman so I read aliquam any woman not aliquem any man as 't is in the common Prints he was to have his Privities cut off Forced her I sure enough and perhaps he that lay with a woman with her consent was notwithstanding that served in the same kind too And in this case I would have you hear what that great Lawyer Albericus Gentilis his opinion is This I say saith he that a man hath a greater injury done him if the woman were not ravished per force but were debauched and made willing because in this case her mind is estranged from her Husband but in that other not CHAP. IV. Sheriffs and Ihries were before this time Tha four Terms Judges to Act without Appeal Justices of Peace The Kingr payments made at first in Provisions Afterwards ehanged into Mony which the Sheriff of each County was to pay in to the Exchequer The Constable of Dover and Warder of the Cinque Ports why made A disorder in Church-affairs Reformed POlydore Virgil brings in at this time the first Sheriffs of Counties and here places the beginning of Juries or determining of Tryals by the judgment of Twelve but is out in them both This of Juries is convinced by a Law of Ethelred in Lambard's explications of Law-terms and by those irrefragable arguments which the famous Sir Edward Coke brings against it That other mistake of Sheriffs is confuted by what we have formerly noted out of Ingulph and by what we shall hereafter somewhere have occasion to remark Mars being impleaded in the Areopagus the place of Judgment at Athens for the murder of Halirothius the Son of Neptune whom he had slain for Ravishing his Daughter Alcippa upon his Tryal by twelve Gods was acquitted by six Sentences or Votes For if the number were equal and no majority the Person was not condemned but discharged My meaning why I put in this Story is to shew the most ancient use of this number of twelve in Tryals elsewhere as well as amongst us An Italian might well mistake in a concern of England yet take it not ill at my hands that I have given you this upon his credit 9. He appointed that four times every year there should be kept Conventions or Meetings for several days in such place as he himself should give order In which Meetings the Judges sitting apart by themselves should keep Court and do Justice These are our four Tserms 10. He appointed other Judges who without appeal should exercise Jurisdiction and Judgment from whom as from the bosom of the Prince all that were ingaged in quarrels addressing thither might have right done them and refer their controverlies to them 11. He appointed other Rulers or Magistrates who might take care to see misdemeanors punished these he called Justices of Peace Now one may well imagine that this name of Office is most certainly of a later date and a foreign Writer is to be excused by those rights which are afforded to Guests and Strangers since acting a Busiris his part against them would be downright barbarous I say he is to be excused so far as not to have his mistakes in the History of the English Nation too heavily charged upon him 12. In the Primitive State of the Kingdom after the Conquest Gervase of Tilbury in his Dialogue of the Exchequer saith this is a thing handled down from our Forefathers the Kings had payments made them out of their Lands not in sums of Gold or Silver but only in Victuals or Provisions Out of which the Kings house was supplied with necessaries for daily use and they who were deputed to this service the Purveyors knew what quantity arose from each several land But yet as to Soldiers pay or donatives and for other necessaries concerning the Pleas of the Kingdom or Conventions as also from Cities and Castles where they did not exercise Husbandry or Tillage in such instances payments were made in ready mony Wherefore this Institution lasted all the time of William the First to the time of King Henry his Son so that I my self Gervase flourished in the Reign of Henry the second have seen some people who did at set times carry from the Kings Lands victuals or provisions of food to Court. And the Officers also of the Kings house knew very well having it upon account which Counties were to send in Wheat which to send in several sorts of flesh and Provender for the Horses These things being paid according to the appointed manner and proportion of every thing the Kings Officers reckoned to the Sheriffs by reducing it into a sum of pence to wit for a measure of Wheat to make bread for a hundred men one shilling for the body of a pasture-fed Beef one shilling for a Ram or a Sheep four pence for the allowance of twenty horses likewise four pence But in process of time when as the said King was busie in remote parts beyond Sea to appease Tumults and Insurrections it so happened that ready mony was highly necessary for him to supply his occasions In the mean time there came in multitudes a great company of Husbandmen with complaints to the Kings Court or which troubled him more they frequently came in his way as he was passing by holding up their Ploughshares in token that their Husbandry was running to decay for they were put to a world of trouble upon occasion of the provisions which they carried from their own quarters through several parts of the Kingdom Thereupon the King being moved with their complaints did by the resolved advice of his Lords appoint throughout the Kingdom such persons as he knew were for their prudence and
discretion fit for the service These persons going about and that they might believe their own eyes taking a view of the several Lands having made an estimate of the provisions which were paid out of them they reduced it into a sum of pence But for the total sum which arose out of all the Lands in one County they ordered that the Sheriff of that County should be bound to the Exchequer Adding this withal that he should pay it at the Scale Now the manner of paying the tryal of the weight and of the metal by Chymical operation the Melter or Coyner and the surveyor of the Mint are more largely handled and explained by my self in some other work of mine 13. That he might the more firmly retain Kent to himself that being accounted as it were the Key of England 't is the famous Mr. Camden tells the Story he set a Constable over Dover-Castle and made the same person Warden of the Cinque Ports according to the old usage of the Romans Those are Hastings Dover Hith Rumney and Sandwich to which are joyned Winchelsey and Rye as Principals and other little Towns as Members 14. To put the last hand to William I add out of the Archives this Law not to be accounted among the last or least of his William by the Grace of God King of the English to all Counts or Earls Viscounts or Sheriffs and to all French born and English men who have Lands in the Bishoprick of Remigius greeting This Remigius was the first who translated the Episcopal See from Dorchester to Lincoln Be it known unto you all and the rest of my Liege Subjects who abide in England that I by the common advice of my Arch-Bishops and the rest of the Bishops and Abbots and all the Princes of my Kingdom have thought fit to order the amendment of the Episcopal Laws which have been down to my time in the Kingdom of the Angles not well nor according to the Precepts of the holy Canons ordained or administred Wherefore I do command and by my Royal Authority strictly charge that no Bishop or Arch-deacon do henceforth hold Pleas in the Hundred concerning Episcopal Laws nor bring any cause which belongs to the Government of Souls i. e. to spiritual affairs to the judgment of secular men but that whosoever according to the Episcopal Laws shall for what cause or fault soever be summoned shall come to a place which the Bishop shall chuse and name for this purpose and there make answer concerning his cause and do right to God and his Bishop not according to the Hundred but according to the Canons and Episcopal Laws For in the time of the Saxon Empire there were wont to be present at those Country Meetings the Hundred Courts an Alderman and a Bishop the one for Spirituals the other for Temporals as appears by King Edgar's Laws CHAP. V. William Rufus succeeds Annats now paid to the King Why claimed by the Pope No one to go out of the Land without leave Hunting of Deer made Felony AFter the death of William his second Son WILLIAM sirnamed RVFVS succeeded in his room All Justice of Laws as Florentius of Worcester tells us was now husht in silence and Causes being put under a Vacation without hearing money alone bore sway among the great ones Ipsaque majestas auro corrupta jacebat that is And Majesty it self being brib'd with gold Lay as a prostitute expos'd to th' hold 15. The right or duty of First-Fruits or as they are commonly called the Annats which our Kings claimed from vacant Abbies and Bishopricks Polydor Virgil will have to have had its first original from Rufus Now the Popes of Rome laid claim to them anciently a sort of Tribute which upon what right it was grounded the Council of Basil will inform us and by what opinion and resolution of Divines and Lawyers confirmed Francis Duarenus in his Sacred Offices of the Church will instruct us 'T is certain that Chronologers make mention that at his death the Bishopricks of Canterbury Winchester and Salisbury and twelve Monasteries beside being without Prelates and Abbots paid in their Revenues to the Exchequer 16. He forbad by publick Edict or Proclamation sayes the same Author that any one should go out of England without his leave and Passport We read that he forbad Anselm the Arch-Bishop that he should not go to wait upon Pope Vrban but that he comprehended all Subjects whatsoever in this his Royal order I confess I have not met with any where in my reading but in Polydor. 17. He did so severely forbid hunting of Deer saith William of Malmesbury that it was Felony and a hanging matter to have taken a Stag or Buck. CHAP. VI. Henry the First why called Beauclerk His Letters of Repeal An Order for the Relief of Lands What a Hereot was Of the Marriage of the Kings Homagers Daughter c. Of an Orphans Marriage Of the Widows Dowry Of other Homagers the like Coynage-money remitted Of the disposal of Estates The Goods of those that dye Intestate now and long since in the Churches Jurisdiction as also the business of Wills Of Forfeitures Of Misdemeanors Of Forests Of the Fee de Hanberk King Edward's Law restored WIlliam who had by direful Fates been shewn to the World was followed by his Brother Henry who for his singular Learning which was to him instead of a Royal Name was called Beau-clerk He took care of the Common-wealth by amending and making good what had slipt far aside from the bounds of Justice and by softning with wholsome remedies those new unheard of and most grievous injuries which Ralph afterwards Bishop of Durham being Lord Chief Justice of the whole Kingdom plagued the people with He sends Letters of Repeal to the High Sheriffs to the intent that the Citizens and people might enjoy their liberty and free rights again See here a Copy of them as they are set down in Matthew Paris HENRY by the Grace of God King of England to Hugh of Bockland High Sheriff and to all his Liege people as well French as English in Herefordshire Greeting Know ye that I through the mercy of God and by the common advice of the Barons of the Kingdom of England have been crowned King And because the Kingdom was opprest with unjust exactions I out of regard to God and that love which I bear towards you all do make the holy Church of God free so that I will neither sell it nor will I put it to farm nor upon the death of Arch-Bishop or Bishop or Abbot will I take any thing of the domain of the Church or of the men thereof till a Successor enter upon it And all evil Customs wherewith the Kingdom of England was unjustly oppressed I do henceforward take away which evil usages I do here in part set down 18. If any one of my Barons Counts or others that hold of me shall dye his Heir shall not redeem his Land
restored to them if there were any living creature on Ship-board that escaped drowning Forasmuch as before that time whatsoever through the misfortune of shipwrack was cast on Shoar was adjudged to the Exchequer except that the persons who suffered shipwrack and had escaped alive did themselves within such a time refit and repair the Vessel So the Chronicle of the Monastery of S. Martin de Bello This right is called Wreck or if you will Uareck of the Sea How agreeable to the Law of Nations I trouble not my self to enquire That more ancient Custom is as it were suitable to the Norman usage Now at this time our Lawyers and that the more modern Law of Edward the First pass judgement according to the more correct Copy of King Henry And they reckon it too among the most ancient Customs of the Kingdom Did therefore King Richard order or did Hoveden relate this to no purpose or without any need If one who suffers shipwrack dye in the Ship let his Sons or Daughters his Brethren or Sisters have what he left according as they can shew and make out that they are his next heirs Or if the deceased have neither Sons nor Daughters nor Brothers nor Sisters the King is to have his Chattels Can one imagine that this Law he made at Messina when he was engaged in War was calculated only for that time or place Certainly in the Archives there is elsewhere to be met with as much as this 40. That he might with a stout Army bear the brunt of Baldwin Earl of Flanders and Louis King of France who had conspired being bound by mutual Oaths to one another with the Duke of Anjou to take away from King Henry by force of Arms the Dutchy of Normandy he first of all t is Polydore avers it laid a heavy Tax upon the people to carry on the new War which thing with the Kings that followed after grew to be a custom He was the last of the Normans of a Male descent and as to the method of our undertaking here we treat of him last CHAP. IX In King Stephen's Reign all was to pieces Abundance of Castles buili Of the priviledge of Coming Appeals to the Court of Rome now set on foot The Roman Laws brought in but disowned An instance in the Wonder-working Parliament AS of old unless the Shields were laid up there was no Dancing at Weddings so except Arms be put aside there is no pleading of Laws That Antipathy betwixt Arms and Laws England was all over sensible of if ever at any time in the Reign of K. STEPHEN Count of Blois King Henry's Nephew by his Sister Adela For he did not only break the Law and his Oath too to get a Kingdom but also being saluted King by those who perfidiously opposed Mawd the right and true heir of King Henry he reigned with an improved wickedness For he did so strangely and odly chop and change every thing it is Malmsbury speaks it as if he had sworn only for this intent that he might shew himself to the whole Kingdom a Dodger and Shammer of his Oath But as he saith perjuros merito perjuria fallunt that is Such men as Perjuries do make their Trade By their own Perjuries most justly are betray'd They are things of custom to which he swore and such as whereby former priviledges are ratified rather than new ones granted However some things there are that may be worth the transcribing 41. Castles were frequently raised 'tis Nubrigensis relates it in the several Counties by the bandying of parties and there were in England in a manner as many Kings or rather as many Tyrants as Lords of Castles having severally the stamping of their own Coin and a power of giving Law to the Subjects after a Royal manner then was the Kingdom plainly torn to pieces and the right of Majesty shattered which gains to it self not the least lustre from stamping of Money Though I know very well that before the Normans in the City of Rochester Canterbury and in other Corporations and Towns Abbots and Bishops had by right of priviledge their Stampers and Coiners of Money 42. Next to the King Theobald Arch-Bishop of Canterbury presided over the Council of London where there were also present the Peers of the Realm which buzzed with new appeals For in England t is Henry of Huntington sayes it appeals were not in use till Henry Bishop of Winchester when he was Legate cruelly intruded them to his own mischief Wherefore what Cardinal Bellarmin has writ beginning at the Synod of Sardis concerning the no body knows how old time of the universal right of appealing to the Pope of Rome does not at all as to matter of fact seem to touch upon this Kingdom of ours by many and many a fair mile 43. In the time of King Stephen fo 't is in the Polycraticon of John of Salisbury the Roman Laws were banisht the Realm which the House of the Right Reverend Theobald Lord Primate of Britanny had fetcht or sent for over into Britanny Besides it was forbidden by Royal Proclamation that no one should retain or keep by him the Books If you understand the Laws of the Empire I rather take them to be the Decrees of the Popes it will not be much amiss out of the Parliament Records to adjoyn these things of later date In the Parliament holden by Richard of Bourdeaux which is said to have wrought Wonders Upon the Impeachment of Alexander Nevil Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Robert Uere Duke of Ireland Michael Pole Earl of Suffolk Thomas Duke of Glocester Richard Earl of Arundel Thomas Beauchamp Earl of Warwick and others That they being intrusted with the management of the Kingdom by soothing up the easie and youthful temper of the King did assist one another for their own private interest more than the publick well near to the ruine and overthrow of the Government it self the Common Lawyers and Civilians are consulted with about the form of drawing up the Charge which they answer all as one man was not agreeable to the rule of the Laws But the Barons of Parliament reply That they would be tyed up to no rules nor be led by the punctilioes of the Roman Law but would by their own authority pass judgement pur ce que la royalme d' Angleterre n' estoit devant ces heures n'y à l' entent de nostre dit Seigneur le Roy Seigneurs de Parlament unque ne serra rules ne gouvernes per la Loy Civil that is inasmuch as the Realm of England was not before this time nor in the intention of our said Lord the King and the Lords of Parliament ever shall be ruled or governed by the Civil Law And hereupon the persons impleaded are sentenced to be banished But here is an end of Stephen He fairly dyed CHAP. X. In King Henry the Seconds time the Castles demolished A Parliament held at Clarendon Of
the Advowson and Presentation of Churches Estates not to be given to Monasteries without the Kings leave Clergymen to answer in the Kings Court A Clergyman convict out of the Churches Protection None to go out of the Realm without the Kings leave This Repealed by King John Excommunicate Persons to find Surety Laymen how to be impleaded in the Ecclesiastical Court A Lay-Jury to swear there in what case No Homager or Officer of the Kings to be Excommunicated till He or his Justice be acquainted AT length though late first Henry the Son of Jeoffry Plantagenet Count of Anger 's by the Empress Mawd came to his Grandfatherrs Inheritance Having demolished and levelled to the ground the Castles which had in King Stephen's time been built to the number of eleven hundred and fifteen and having retrieved the right of Majesty into its due bounds he confirmed the Laws of his Grandfather Moreover at Clarendon in Wiltshire near Salisbury John of Oxford being President by the Kings own Mandate there being also present the Arch-Bishops Bishops Abbots Priors Earls Barons and Peers of the Realm other Laws are recognized and passed whilst at first those who were for the King on one side those who were for the Pope on the other with might and main stickle to have it go their way these latter pleading that the secular Court of Justice did not at all suit with them upon pretence that they had a priviledge of Immunity But this would not serve their turn for such kind of Constitutions as we are now setting down had the Vogue 44. If any Controversie concerning the Advowson and Presentation of Churches arise betwixt Laymen or betwixt Laymen and Clergymen or betwixt Clergymen among themselves let it be handled and determined in the Court of the Lord our King 45. The Churches which are in the Kings Fee cannot be given to perpetuity without his assent and concession Even in the Saxons times it seems it was not lawful without the Kings favour first obtained to give away Estates to Monasteries for so the old Book of Abington says A Servant of King Ethelred's called Vlfric Spot built the Abby of Burton in Staffordshire and gave to it all his Paternal Estate appraised at seven hundred pounds and that this donation might be good in Law he gave King Ethelred three hundred Marks of Gold for his confirmation of it and to every Bishop five Marks and over and above to Alfric Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Village of Dumbleton 46. Clergymen being arighted and accused of any matter whatsoever having been summoned by the Kings Justice let them come into his Court there to make answer to that of which it shall be thought fit that there answer ought to be made So that the Kings Justice send into the Court of Holy Church to see after what manner the business there shall be handled 47. If a Clergyman shall be convicted or shall confess the Fact the Church ought not from thenceforth to give him protection 48. It is not lawful for Arch-Bishops Bishops and Persons of the Kingdom to go out of the Realm without leave of our Lord the King And if they do go out if the King please they shall give him security that neither in going nor in returning or in making stay they seek or devise any mischief or damage against our Lord the King Whether you refer that Writ we meet with in the Register or Record NE EXEAS REGNVM for Subjects not to depart the Kingdom to this time or instance or with Polydore Virgil to William Rufus or to later times is no very great matter Nor will it be worth our while curiously to handle that question For who in things of such uncertainty is able to fetch out the truth Nor will I abuse my leasure or spend time about things unapproachable An sit hic dubito sed hic tamen auguror esse Says the Poet in another case And so say I. Whether it be here or no Is a Question I confess And yet for all that I trow Here it is too as I guess Out of King John's great Charter as they call it you may also compare or make up this Repeal of that Law in part Let it be lawful henceforward for any one to go out of our Realm and to return safely and securely by Land and by Water upon our Royal word unless in time of War for some short time for the common advantage of the Kingdom excepting those that are imprisoned and out-lawed according to the Law of the Kingdom and any People or Nation that are in actual War against us And Merchants concerning whom let such Order be taken as is afore directed I return to King Henry 49. Excommunicate Persons ought not to give suretiship for the Remainder nor to take an Oath but only to find Surety and Pledge to stand to the Judgment of the Church that they may be absolved 50. Persons of the Laity ought not to be accused or impleaded but by certain and legal Accusers and Witnesses in the presence of the Arch-Bishop or Bishop so that the Arch-Deacon may not lose his right nor any thing which he ought to have therefrom 51. If they be such Persons who are in fault as no one will or dare to accuse let the Sheriff being thereunto required by him cause twelve legal men of the Voisinage or of the Village to swear before the Bishop that they will manifest or make known the truth of the matter according to their Conscience 52. Let no one who holds of the King in capite nor any one of the Kings Officers or Servants of his Domain be excommunicated nor the Lands of any of them be put under an Interdict or prohibition unless first our Lord the King if he be in the Land be spoke with or his Justice if he be out of the Land that they may do right by him And so that what shall appertain to the Kings Court may be determined there and as to what shall belong to the Ecclesiastical Court it may be sent thither and there treated of CHAP. XI Other Laws of Church affairs Concerning Appeals A Suit betwixt a Clergyman and a Layman where to be Tryed In what case one who relates to the King may be put under an Interdict The difference betwixt that and Excommunication Bishops to be present at Tryals of Criminals until Sentence of Death c. pass Profits of vacant Bishopricks c. belong to the King The next Bishop to be Chosen in the Kings Chappel and to do Homage before Consecration Deforcements to the Bishop to be righted by the King And on the contrary Chattels forfeit to the King not to be detained by the Church Pleas of debts whatsoever in the Kings Court Yeomens Sons not to go into Orders without the Lords leave 53. COncerning Appeals if at any time there shall be occasion for them they are to proceed from the Arch-Deacon to the Bishop and from the Bishop to
the Arch-Bishop and if the Arch-Bishop shall be wanting in doing of Justice they must come in the last place to our Lord the King that by his precept or order the Controversie may be determined in the Arch-Bishops Court so as that it ought not to proceed any further without the Kings assent This Law long since the famous Sir Edward Coke made use of to assert and maintain the Kings Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction as a thing not of late taken up by him but anciently to him belonging 54. If a Claim or Suit shall arise betwixt a Clergyman and a Lay-man or betwixt a Layman and a Clergyman concerning any Tenement which the Clergyman would draw to the Church and the Lay-man to a Lay-fee it shall by the recognizance of twelve legal men upon the consideration and advisement of the Lord Chief Justice be determined whether the Tenement do appertain to Alms i. e. to the Church or to Lay-Estate before the Kings own Justice And if it shall be recognized or adjudged to appertain to Alms it shall be a Plea in the Ecclesiastical Court But if to a Lay-fee unless they both avow or avouch the Tenement from the same Bishop or Baron it shall be a Plea in the Kings Court But if each of them shall for that fee avouch the same Bishop or â—aron it shall be a Plea in that Bishops or Barons Court so that he who was formerly seised shall not by reason of the Recognizance made lose the Seisin till it shall by Plea be deraigned 55. He who shall be of a City or a Castle or a Burrough or a Manner of the Kings Domain if he shall be cited by an Arch-Deacon or a Bishop upon any misdemeanour upon which he ought to make answer to him and refuse to satisfie upon their summons or citations they may well and lawfully put him under an Interdict or Prohibition but he ought not to be Excommunicated By the way seasonably remark out of the Pontificial Law that that Excommunication they call the greater removes a man and turns him out from the very Communion and Fellowship of the Faithful and that an Interdict as the lesser Excommunication separates a man and lays him aside only forbidding him to be present at Divine Offices and the use of the Sacraments I say he ought not to be Excommunicated before that the Kings Chief Justice of that Village or City be spoken with that he may order him to come to satisfaction And if the Kings Justice fail therein he shall be at the Kings mercy and thereupon or after that the Bishop may punish him upon his impleadment with the Justice of the Church 56. Arch-Bishops Bishops and all Persons whatsoever of the Kingdom who hold of the King in capite and have their possessions from our Lord the King in nature of a Barony and thereupon make answer to the Kings Justices and Officers and perform all Rights and Customs due to the King as other Barons do they ought to be present at the Tryals of the Court of our Lord the King with his Barons until the losing of Limbs or death be adjudged to the party tried 57. When an Arch-Bishoprick or Bishoprick or Abbacy or Priory of the Kings Domain shall be void it ought to be in his hand and thereof shall he receive all the profits and issues as belonging to his Domain And when the Church is to be provided for our Lord the King is to order some choice persons of the Church and the Election is to be made in the Kings own Chappel by the assent of our Lord the King and by the advice of those persons of the Kingdom whom he shall call for that purpose and there shall the Person Elect saving his order before he be Consecrated do Homage and Fealty to our Lord the King as to his Liege Lord for his life and limbs and for his Earthly Honour 58. If any one of the Nobles or Peers do deforce to do Justice to an Arch-Bishop Bishop or Arch-Deacon for themselves or those that belong to them the King in this case is to do justice 59. If peradventure any one shall deforce to the Lord the King his Right the Arch-Bishop Bishop and Arch-Deacon ought then in that case to do justice or to take a course with him that he may give the King satisfaction 60. The Chattels of those who are in the Kings forfeit let not the Church or Church-yard detain or keep back against the justice of the King because they are the Kings own whether they shall be found in Churches or without 61. Pleas of debts which are owing either with security given or without giving security let them be in the Kings Court. 62. The Sons of Yeomen or Country people ought not to be ordained or go into holy Orders without the assent of the Lord of whose Land they are known to have been born CHAP. XII The Statutes of Clarendon mis-reported in Matthew Paris amended in Quadrilegus These Laws occasioned a Quarrel between the King and Thomas a Becket Witness Robert of Glocester whom he calls Yumen The same as Rusticks i. e. Villains Why a Bishop of Dublin called Scorch-Uillein Villanage before the Normans time I Confess there is a great difference between these Laws and the Statutes of Clarendon put forth in the larger History of Matthew Paris I mean those mangled ones and in some places what through great gaps of sence disjointings of Sentences and misplacings of words much depraved ones whose misfortune I ascribe to the carelesness of Transcribers But the latter end of a Manuscript Book commonly called Quadrilegus wherein the Life of Thomas Arch Bishop of Canterbury is out of four Writers to wit Hubert of Boseham John of Salisbury William of Canterbury and Alan Abbot of Tewksbury digested into one Volume hath holp us to them amended as you may see here and set to rights It is none of our business to touch upon those quarrels which arose upon the account of these Laws betwixt the King and Thomas of Canterbury Our Historians do sufficiently declare them In the mean time may our Poet of Glocester have leave to return upon the Stage and may his Verses written in ancient Dialect comprising the matter which we have in hand be favourably entertained No man ne might thenche the love that there was Bitwene the K. H. and the good man S. Thomas The diuel had enui therto and sed bitwen them feu Alas alas thulke stond vor all to well it greu Uor there had ere ibe kings of Luther dede As W. Bastard and his son W. the rede That Luther Laws made inou and held in al the lond The K. nold not beleue the lawes that he fond Ne that his elderne hulde ne the godeman S. Thomas Thought that thing age right neuer law nas Ne sothnes and custom mid strength up iâ—old And he wist that vre dere Lourd in the Gospel told That he himselfe was sothnes and custum nought Theruore Luther custumes
to chapitle wore idraw And eni man made is appele yuf me dude him unlaw That to the Bishop from Ercedeken is appele sold make And from Bishop to Arcebissop and suth none other take And but the Ercebisops court to right him wold bring That he sold from him be cluthe biuore the King And from the K. non other mo so that attan end Plaining of holi chirch to the K. shold wend. And the K. amend solde the Ercebissops dede And be as in the Popes stude and S. Thomas it withsede VII The seuethe was that plaiding that of det were To yeld wel thoru truth iâ—light and nought iâ—old nere Althei thoru truth it were that ple sold be ibrought Biuore the K. and is bailies and to holy chirch nought VIII The eighth that in the lond citation none nere Thoru bull of the Pope of Rome and clene bileued were IX The nithe was that Peters pence that me gadereth manion The Pope nere nought on isend ac the K. echone X. The tethe was yuf eni Clarke as felon were itake And vor felon iproved and ne might it not forsake That me sold him verst disordein and suth thoru there law And thoru judgement of the land hong him other to draw Uor these and vor other mo the Godeman S. Thomas Fleu verst out of England and eke imartred was Uor he sei there nas hote o way other he must stiffe be Other holy chirch was isent that of right was so fre CHAP. XIV The Pope absolves Thoms a Becket from his Oath and damns the Laws of Clarendon The King resents it writes to his Sheriffs Orders a Scisure Penalties inflicted on Kindred He provides against an Interdict from Rome He summons the Bishops of London and Norwich An Account of Peter Pence TO the Laws of Clarendon which I spoke of the States of the Kingdom the Baronage and with them the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury took their Oaths in solemn manner calling upon God There were Embassadors sent to Pope Alexander the third that there might be that bottom also that he would further confirm and ratifie them But he was so far from doing that that he did not only pretend that they did too much derogate from the priviledge of the Clergy and wholly refuse to give his assent to them but also having absolved Thomas the Arch-Bishop at his own request from the obligation of that Oath he had bound himself with he condemned them as impious and such as made against the interest and honour of holy Church King Henry as soon as he heard of it took it as it was fit he should very much in dudgeon grievously and most deservedly storming at the insolence of the Roman Court and the Treachery of the Bishop of Canterbury Immediately Letters were dispatcht to the several Sheriffs of the respective Counties That if any Clerk or Layman in their Bayliwicks should appeal to the Court of Rome they should seise him and take him into firm custody till the King give order what his pleasure is And that they should seise into the Kings hand and for his use all the Revenues and Possessions of the Arch-Bishops Clerks and of all the Clerks that are with the Arch-Bishop they should put by way of safe pledge the Fathers Mothers and Sisters Nephews and Neeces and their Chattels till the King give order what his pleasure is I have told the Story out of Matthew Paris You see in this instance a penalty where there is no fault It affects or reaches to their Kindred both by Marriage and Blood a thing not unusual in the declension of the Roman Empire after Angustâ—â—s his time But let misdemeanors hold or oblige those who are the Authors of them was the Order of Arcaliâ—s and Honorius Emperors to the Lord Chief Justice Eâ—tâ—chianus nor let the fear of punishment proceed further than the offence is found A very usual right among the English whereby bating the taking away the Civil Rights of Blood and Nobility none of the Posterity or Family of those who lose their honours do for the most hainous crimes of their Parents undergo any penalties But this was not all in those Letters I mentioned he added threats also 63. If any one shall be sound carrying Letters or a Mandate from the Pope or Thomas Arch-Bishop of Canterbury containing an interdiction of Christian Religion in England let him be seised and kept in hold and let Justice be done upon him without delay as a Traitor against the King and Kingdom This Roger of Hoveden stands by ready to witness 64. Let the Bishops of London and Norwich be summon'd that they may be before the Kings Justices to do right i. e. to answer to their charge and to make satisfaction that they have contrary to the Statutes of the Kingdom interdicted the Land of Earl Hugh and have inflicted a sentence of Excommunication upon him This was Hugh Bigod Earl of Norfolk 65. Let St. Peters pence be collected or gathered and kept safe Those Pence were a Tribute or Alms granted first by Ina King of the West-Saxons yearly at Lammas to be gathered from as many as had thirty pence as we read it in the Confessor's Laws of live-mony in their house These were duly at a set time paid in till the time of Henry the eighth when he set the Government free from the Papal Tyranny About which time Polydore Virgil was upon that account in England Treasurer or Receiver general I thought fit to set down an ancient brief account of these pence out of a Rescript of Pope Gregory to the Arch-Bishops of Canterbury and York in the time of King Edward the second Diocess li. s. d. Canterbury 07 18 00 London 16 10 00 Rochester 05 12 00 Norwich 21 10 00 Ely 05 00 00 Lincoln 42 00 00 Coventry 10 05 00 Chester 08 00 00 Winchester 17 06 08 Exceter 09 05 00 Worcester 10 05 00 Hereford 06 00 00 Bath 12 05 00 York 11 10 00 Salisbury 17 00 00 It amounts to three hundred Marks and a Noble that is two hundred Pounds sterling and six Shillings and eight Pence You are not to expect here the murder of Thomas a Becket and the story how King Henry was purged of the crime having been absolved upon hard terms Conveniunt cymbae vela minora meâ— My little Skiff bears not so great a Sail. CHAP. XV. A Parliament at Northampton Six Circuits ordered A List of the then Justices The Jury to be of twelve Knights Several sorts of Knights In what cases Honorary Knights to serve in Juries Those who come to Parliament by right of Peerage sit as Barons Those who come by Letters of Summons are styled Chevaliers NOt long after the King and the Barons meet at Northampton They treat concerning the Laws and the administration of Justice At length the Kingdom being divided into six Provinces or Circuits there are chosen from among the Lawyers some who in every of those Provinces
in the borders of the Carnutes the middle Region of all France Some think that a Town at eight Miles distance from the Metropolis of those people commonly called Dreux was designed for that use Whilst the Saxons governed the Laws were made in the General Assembly of the States or Parliament In the front of King Ina's Laws 't is above Eight Hundred and Eighty years that he first reigned we read thus It Ine mid godes gift West-Saxna Cyning mid getbeat a mid lere Cenredes mines fader a hedde a Erconwald mine hiscops a mid eallum minum ealdor mannum tham yldestan Witan mines theode be beodeth c. which in our present English speaks thus I Ina by the Grace of God King of the West-Saxons by the advice and order of Kenred my Father and of Hedda and Erconwald my Bishops and of all my Aldermen and of the Elders and Wise Men of my people do command c. There are a great many instances of this kind in other places Moreover Witlaf and Bertulph who were Kings of the Mercians near upon Eight hundred years ago do in their instruments under their hands make mention of Synods and Councils of the Prelates and Peers convened for the affairs of the Kingdom And an ancient Book has this passage of Abendon Here was the Royal Seat hither when they were to treat of the principal and difficult points of State and affairs of the Kingdom the people were used to meet and flock together To this may be added that which Malmesbury sayes of King Edward in the year of our Lord 903. The King gathered a Synod or Assembly of the Senators of the English Nation over which did preside Pleimund Arch-Bishop of Canterbury interpreting expresly the words of the Apostolical Embassy These Assemblies were termed by the Saxons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Meetings of the Wise Men and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the Great Assemblies At length we borrowed of the French the name of Parliaments which before the time of Henry the First Polydore Virgil sayes were very rarely held An usage that not without good reason seems to have come from the ancient Germans So Tacitus sayes of them Concerning smaller matters the Princes only concerning things of greater concern they do all the whole body of them consult yet in that manner that those things also which it was in the peoples power to determine were treated of by the Princes too And I have one that hath left it in writing that when there was neither Bishop nor Earl nor Baron yet then Kings held their Parliaments and in King Arthur's Patent to the University of Cambridge for ye have my leave if you can find in your heart to give credit to it as John Key does by the counsel and assent of all and singular the Prelats and Princes of this Realm I decree There were present at Parliaments about the beginning of the Normans times as many as were invested with Thirteen Fees of Knights service and a third part of one Fee called Baron's from their large Estates for which reason perhaps John Cochleius of Mentz in his Epistle Dedicatory to our most Renowned Sir Thomas More prefixt before the Chronicle of Aurelius Cassiodorus calls him Baron of England But Henry the Third the number of them growing over big ordered by Proclamation that those only should come there whom he should think sit to summon by Writ These Assemblies do now sit in great State which with a wonderful harmony of the Three Estates the King the Lords and the Commons or Deputies of the People are joyned together to a most firm security of the publick and are by a very Learned Man in allusion to that made word in Livy Panaetolium from the Aetolians most rightly called Pananglium that is all England As in Musical Instruments and Pipes and in Singing it self and in Voices sayes Scipio in Tully's Books of the Common-wealth there is a kind of harmony to be kept out of distinct sounds which Learned and Skilful Ears cannot endure to hear changed and jarring and that consort or harmony from the tuning and ordering of Voices most unlike yet is rendred agreeing and suitable so of the highest and middlemost and lowermost States shuffled together like different sounds by fair proportion doth a City agree by the consent of persons most unlike and that which by Musicians in singing is called Harmony that in a City is Concord the straightest and surest bond of safety in every Common-wealth and such as can by no means be without Justice But let this suffice for Law-makers CHAP. XX. The Guardians of the Laws who In the Saxons time seven Chief One of the Kings among the Heptarchs styled Monarch of all England The Office of Lord High Constable Of Lord Chancellor ancient The Lord Treasurer Alderman of England what Why one called Healfkoning Aldermen of Provinces and Graves the same as Counts or Earls and Viscounts or Sheriffs Of the County Court and the Court of Inquests called Tourn le Viscount When this Court kept and the original of it I Do scarce meet before the Saxons times with any Guardians of the Laws different from these Law-makers In their time they were variously divided whose neither Name nor Office are as yet grown out of use The number is made up to give you only the heads by these to wit the King the Lord HighConstable the Chancellor the Treasurer the Alderman of England the Aldermen of Provinces and the Graves Those of later date and of meaner notice I pass by meaning to speak but briefly of the rest The King was alwayes one amongst the Heptarchs or seven Rulers who was accounted I have Beda to vouch it the Monarch of all England Ella King of the South-Saxons so sayes Ethelwerd was the first that was dignified with so high a Title and Empire who was Owner of as large a Jurisdiction as Ecbright the second was Ceâ—lin King of the West-Angles the third Aethelbrith King of the Kentish-men the fourth Redwald King of the Easterlings the fifth Edwin King of Northumberland the sixth Oswald the seventh Osweo Oswald's Brother after whom the eighth was Ecbright His West-Saxon Kingdom took in the rest for the greatest part The Office of Lord High Constable which disappeared in Edward Duke of Buckingham who in Henry the Eighth's time lost his Head for High-Treason was not seen till the latter end of the Saxons One Alfgar Staller is reported by Richard of Ely Monk to have been Constable to Edward the Confessor and Mr. Camden mentions a dwelling of his upon this account called Plaissy in the County of Middlesex He of Ely sets him out for a Great and Mighty Man in the Kingdom And indeed formerly that Magistrate had great power which was formidable even to Kings themselves They who deny there were any Chancellors before the coming in of the Normans are hugely mistaken Nor are they disproved only
Pag. 28. lin 11. Now you for your part are Gods Vicegerent in the Kingdom They are the words of Pope Eleutherius in his Letter to Lucy the first Christian King which was in the year of our Lord 183. From whence we may fairly conclude that in those early dayes the Pope of Rome according to his own acknowledgement had no such pretensions as now for several Ages since they have made upon the Rights of Princes to the great disturbance of the World and reproach of Christian Religion And indeed this is the more considerable in that such was the simplicity of devotion in those early Converts and such the deference which Princes who embraced the Christian Faith especially from the Missionaries of Rome had for that Holy See as appears by this one single instance that it had been no hard matter nor could be judged an unreasonable thing for them to lay claim to a right and assert a power which was so voluntarily offered Further I add that seeing the Donation of Constantine besides that it was alwayes look't upon as a piece of forgery was at best supposing it true but an Imperial Grant and Concession which would not be of authority enough to bear up the Popes Supremacy in all other Kingdoms of the earth and seeing Pope Boniface who was the first that with bare face own'd it his complyance with Phocas was so grosly wicked that none of their own Writers but are ashamed to make that transaction betwixt those two an argument for the Papal pretence Seeing I say it is so if the Pope be intitled as their Canonists pretend to an Universal Dominion by vertue of his Office and by Commission from Christ and his chief Apostle S. Peter how came it to pass that the Bishops of Rome all along till Boniface were so modest as not to challenge any such rights or powers nay upon occasion to declare against such pretences as Antichristian which if that be true that the Pope is by his Office and by a Divine Commission instated into a Supremacy was in effect no less than to betray the cause of Christ and his Church how came it to pass that Eleutherius should neglect such a seasonable and exemplary opportunity of maintaining and exercising his right and should rather chuse to return it in a complement back to the King his Convert VICARIVS verò DEI estis in Regno sayes he You are GOD's VICAR in your Kingdom which Title now the Pope doth with as much arrogance challenge to himself as here one of his Predecessors doth with modesty ascribe to the King Lin. 32. With the title of Spectabilis Towards the declension of the Roman Empire it was usual so to distinguish great Offices with peculiar Titles as Spectabilis Clarissimus c. so among the Italians Magnifico to a Senator of Venice Illustrissimo to any Gentleman Eminentiâ—â—â—mo to a Cardinal So with us the term of Highness is given to a Prince of the Blood Excellence to a Vice-Roy or a Lord Lieutenant and to a General of an Army Grace to an Arch-bishop and to a Duke Honour to a Lord Worship to an Esquire c. CHAP. XVII P. 29. lin 43. Fabius Quaestor Aetheâ—verd Why he calls him Fabius Quaestor is at present past my understanding Did he take upon him a Roman name Was he in any such Office as Quaestor i. e. Treasurer or Receiver General wherein he behaved himself like a Fabius or did he intitle his Book by that name I am to seek CHAP. XVIII Pag. 31. lin 19. Whatsoever there was in Pandora of Good and Fair. She was a Woman made by Jupiter's own order and designed to be the pattern of female perfection to which end all the Gods contributed to the making of her several gifts one Wisdom another Beauty a third Eloquence a fourth Musick c. CHAP. XIX P. 32. lin 27. Wapentakes Which in some of our Northern Countreys is the same as we call other-where a Hundred from the Sâ—xon word waepen i. e. arms and tac i. e. touch as one should say a touching or shaking of their Arms. For as we read it in King Edward's Laws when any one came to take upon him the Government of a Wapentake upon a day appointed all that owed suit and service to that Hundred came to meet their new Governour at the usual place of their Rendezvouz He upon his arrival lighting off his Horse set up his Lance an end a Custom used also among the Romans by the Prator at the meetings of the Centumviri and according to custom took fealty of them The Ceremony of which was that all who were present touch't the Governours Lance with their Lances in token of a confirmation whereupon that whole meeting was called a Wapentake inasmuch as by the mutual touch of one anothers Arms they had entred into a confederacy and agreement to stand by one another This fashion they say the Saxons took up from the Macedonians their Progenitors Others will have it from tac to take and give this account of it that the Lord of the Hundred at his first entrance upon the place was used to take the Tenants Arms surrendred and delivered up to him by themselves in token of subjection by way of Homage Sir Thomas Smith differs from both these for he sayes that at the Hundred meeting there was a Muster taken of their Weapons or Arms and that those who could not find sufficient Pledges for their good abearing had their Weapons taken away so that in his sense a Wapentake is properly Armilustrium and so called from taking away their Weapons or Arms who were found unfit to be trusted with them L. 40. For the Ceremony of the Gown He alludes to the Roman Custom with whom the youth when they arrived at mans estate were then allowed to wear togam virilem to put on a Gown the habit of men whereas before that they were obliged to wear a Coat peculiar to the age of Childhood called Praetexta whence Papyrius though yet a Child being admitted into the Senate house for his extraordinary secrecy and manly constancy was called Papyrius Praetextatus Pag. 33. lin 9. Morgangheb Or Morgingah from Morgin which in High Dutch signifies the Morning and gab a gift to wit that Present which a man makes to his Wife that morning he marries her CHAP. XX. Pag. 34. lin 3. Tityus his Liver A Gyant who for ravishing of Latona was adjudged to have his Liver after death prey'd upon continually by a Vulture which grew up again as fast as it was wasted The equity of which punishment lay in this that the Liver is reputed the source and seat of all lusts and unlawful desires and doth naturally as some Physicians hold receive the first taint of Venereal distempers the rewards of impure mixtures according to that of Solomon speaking of an Adulterer Till a dart strike thorough his Liver from whence they gather that that which we now call the French Pox was not unknow even in
several Authors Greek and Latin called Ierna and by the Inhabitants themselves Erin L. 43. The Goddess Anna Perenna The Lady President of the year Anna ab Anno to whom they addrest their devotions that she would perâ—nnare that is preserve and continue health and plenty and prosperity from year to year for which reason she was called Anna Perenna Now our Author here brings in long-lived Nestor and this Goddess to shew that those good fellows in quaffing of healths do wish muchos annos as the Spaniard saith many and many a years life to their absent friends while in the mean time by tossing off so many bowsing Canns they shorten their own lives Pag. 42. lin 24. Englescyre Or Englecerie that is the being an English-man For there was a Law made by King Knute in favour of his Danes and so afterward it was interpreted in behalf of the Francigenae French-men or whatever foreigners that if any such were privily murdered or slain the Village where the fact was done should be amerced in a lusty fine to the King unless they could prove Englecerie that is that the murdered person was an English-man one born of English Parents in which case there was no fine levied So that the Danes and French when they governed here provided they might secure themselves from the English were well enough content to let them destroy one another CHAP. XXV Pag. 44. lin 11. An Olympiad An account of time used by the Greeks consisting of four years so called from the Olympick Games which were celebrated in honour of Jupiter Olympius every fifth year This reckoning began first in the year of the World three thousand one hundred seventy four In the SECOND BOOK CHAP. I. PAg. 48. l. 5. By right of Fréehold Allodii jure that is by a mans own right without acknowledgment of service or fealty or payment of Rent to any other as a Superiour Lord. In which respect it is opposed to an Estate in Fée wherein though a man hath a perpetual right to him and to his heirs for ever yet seeing he owes a duty and service for it it cannot be said properly and simply to be his own And such are all mens Estates here in England but the Kings in the right of his Crown who cannot be supposed to hold of another or to owe fealty to any Superiour but to God only Lin. 12. Vnder Military service Or Knights service that is to find the King such a number of Men and Arms in time of War as it is here expressed See Cowell in the word Chivalry Indeed the Clergy before the Conquerour in the time of the Saxons as we find it in the five and twentieth Chapter of the first Book were allowed to be free from Secular Services but with an Exception and Reserve however of these things to wit Expedition Repairing of Castles and Building of Bridges from which last duty the High-Priests among the Romans were called Pontifices i. e. Bridge-makers Now this bringing of the Bishops Baronies under Knights Service was sure enough design'd to engage them into a close dependence upon the Crown and to take them off from hankering after any forreign Power to which they might pretend to owe any subordination as all along the times of Popery out of reverence to the Holy See they were forward enough upon occasion to think themselves obliged to do even to the high discontent and great disservice of their Kings CHAP. II. Pag. 51. lin 12. Ready money So I render Viva pecunia which though Spelman saith it is so called that it may the more expresly signifie pecudes i. e. Cattle yet he doth not to me I confess make out by any fair instance that it doth ever so signifie and that it cannot be taken in that sense here is plain from what immediately goes before quot animalia imò quantum vivae pecuniae quisque possidebat where animalia living creatures include pecudes the Cattle CHAP. III. Pag. 54. lin 32. Boseham What Earl Godwin's trick was or wherein the conceit lay I cannot at present well imagine unless it were in the equivocation or misunderstanding of the word Boseham as it falls in with the word Bosom in the pronunciation and sound of it thus Supposing the Earl at meeting of the Arch-Bishop coming up to him upon pretence of saluting him said Give me your Boseham my Lord to which the Arch-Bishop thinking belike he might by way of desiring his Pastoral embrace mean only his bosom readily made answer I give you my bosom which the Earl with a cunning fetch interpreted a Grant of his Estate of Boseham Pardon Reader my mistake if it be one since I have no better account from my own guess to give meeting with no help from our Law-Dictionaries CHAP. IV. P. 56. lin 8. The first Sheriffs of Counties A Sheriff or Shyrereev signifies the Governour of a County called in Latin Vice-comes as Deputy to the Count or Lord or Chief Man of the County though even in the Confessor's time he was reckoned the Kings Officer and not the Counts This Office as Mr. Camden tells us was first set up by King Alfred who also divided England into Counties and those Counties again into Hundreds and Tythings Lin. 29. Other Judges without appeal This should seem to be the Court of Chancery for which reason the Lord Chancellor is said to keep the Kings conscience as here these Judges are compared to the Kings bosom Lin. 37. Acting a Busiris his part i. e. Treating strangers ill he being a cruel Tyrant of Egypt who slew strangers and sacrificed them to his Gods whence the Proverb Busiridis arae Pag. 57. lin 39. that he should pay it at the Scale That is should pay it by weight or according to full weight CHAP. VI. Pag. 60. lin 17. Being Lord Chief Justice of the whole Kingdom In the Latin it is thus expressed totius regni placitator exactor where I confess the former title of the two gave me the occasion of my mistake as if he had been Chief Justice of the Common Pleas whereas I should rather have rendred it thus who had been to wit in King Rufus his time Pleader or Demander and Receiver of the Kings duties throughout the whole Kingdom For such an Officer this Exactor regius was otherwise called Grafio See Spelman upon both those words Lin 39. In the times of the Saxons a Hereot This at first was atribute given to the Lord for his better preparation towards War but afterward though the name were kept the thing was altered being taken for the best Chattle that the Tenant hath at the hour of his death due to the Lord by custom be it Horse Ox c. That Hereot and Relief do not signifie the same thing appears by this that they are both often found to be paid out of one and the same Tenure and again that the heir alway succeeds into the Estate upon the payment of the Relief but not alwayes